Tachogrammatus (2021)

While many science fiction literature and film posit a pessimistic future, Tachogrammatus takes a more optimistic approach. The album’s central figure is a mysterious deity of speed (from the prefix “tacho,” the Latinized form of the Greek “takho”), as during the album’s construction Kneschke became fascinated with the idea that rapidity is our age’s currency. The figure arrives in our time through a triangular portal as depicted on the cover and delivers the five songs that serve as instructions for how to build a better world.

“New Canons” is the album’s harrowing opener, and functions to demand questioning the sacred cows of cultural canons in favor of building more significant ones. “Red Death, Blue Dawn” is a reference to the political ideologies of the United States, and asserts that for any true change to happen, conservatism that champions lies about scientific facts, that demeans minorities and elevates the utter dregs of humanity to political office must be eradicated and rebuilt without outdated values as their organizing principle.

“Sinews & Singularities” takes part of its title from Ray Kurzweil’s concept of the singularity, the moment when we merge with the machine in totality, an inevitability that should be embraced. The slow symphonic sinews of organic instrumentation gradually give way to the electronic elements, aurally narrating the fusion between man and machine.

With the building blocks of political change and technological unity in place, mankind must turn within, exploring the depth of mind with synthetic substances considered sacraments in some societies and vilified in others. The underpinning of “Psychoscopic Fields” is a tribal beat in 7/4 time in an homage to humanity’s musical beginnings, imagining a guided psychedelic journey into the deepest unconsciousness. It is only on the album closer, “Crusades on Unpaved Roads,” that Tachogrammatus reveals herself. The track, sung by Otay:onii, marks Kneschke’s first collaboration with a vocalist, a musical direction he would explore further in Trithemius.